Capitol Corner

Career Paths to Congress

Despite all the turmoil in Washington today, my 11 year old son has political aspirations of one day serving in Congress. To meet this goal, what should his career path look like?

There are as many different career paths that lead to Congress as there are probably Members! No one pattern guarantees success over any other.

Whether a candidate can be elected or not is a function of several factors:

the suitability of the candidate's views and positions to the times

adequate financial resources for staff, travel, and advertisements

the quality of the competition in the candidate's party primary

the strengths of the opposite political party in that district or state

personal characteristics, such as an outgoing personality and
good people skills

the candidate’s debate and oratorical skills

For an overview of the professional and educational backgrounds of current Members of Congress, you can review this detailed report found on various websites on the Internet, or use the link that I provide here: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42964.pdf

Membership of the 113th Congress:
A Profile
Jennifer E. Manning
Congressional Research Service
January 13, 2014
CRS Report R42964

Most Members provide their bios on their respective websites. You might suggest to your son that since you live in Georgia, he review the bios of all the Georgia members to get a sense of their path to Congress.